I have been bringing my 85 380SE back to life. After being stolen from me, trashed by the thief, then recovered in 2000, the car has mostly been sitting, and I would try to sort out issues when time and money allowed.

The car cranks for 5-10 seconds on cold starts then when it does start, it wont take any throttle or be driveable for 2-3 minutes. Once it has warmed up, it drives more or less normally.

In the process of bringing this car back to life, I have replaced the fuel pump, fuel filter, and fuel distributor. I also removed the fuel tank and did an acetone rinse followed by a power wash at the DIY car wash.

Any thoughts on what might be causing the slow to start and wont take throttle issues?

Brian in Austin

Possibly a bad over=voltage relay

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Could you elaborate a bit. What relay? Where located? How can I test it?

I do have an 83 107 380SL that starts and runs well, I can pull and swap parts from it if they are compatible